


Shadow Puppets

by grelleswife



Series: Dadbastian Week 2019 [9]
Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dadbastian Week, Gen, Platonic Relationships, Sebastian is soft for his babey human, Sebastian uses his demonic essence to make epic shadow puppets, no souls are eaten because the Phantomhives just give Bassy a bunch of cats
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:40:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22051909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grelleswife/pseuds/grelleswife
Summary: Due to poor health, young Ciel Phantomhive is confined to his bed and dying of boredom...until he meets the family demon, Sebastian.
Relationships: Sebastian Michaelis & Ciel Phantomhive
Series: Dadbastian Week 2019 [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1547587
Comments: 12
Kudos: 123





	Shadow Puppets

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Dadbastian Week 2019 "boredom" prompt

At least once in their life, most children are scared of monsters—in the closet, behind the curtains, or, most commonly of all, in the fearsome darkness under the bed. Ciel Phantomhive was an exception to that rule. He never quaked in terror at the thought of a monster lurking beneath his four-poster, for the simple reason that a demon already lived there.

Ciel hadn’t learned about Sebastian until one afternoon when he was stuck in bed, dying of boredom. Ciel spent a lot of his time being stuck in bed. Auntie An said it was because he had a “frail constitution.” As far as Ciel could figure, this meant he got sick more than a normal child should. Of course, he tried not to complain; that wasn’t what good boys did. Besides, Mother and Father were there most of the time to cheer him up. Mainly Mother. Father was kept busy working as the “Queen’s Watchdog.” He’d once explained to Ciel that it was his duty to “make the queen’s enemies disappear like blotting-paper thrown into the fire.” It scared Ciel. What if those bad people tried to hurt Father? But his father would just laugh and say that he could fend for himself, and that the Phantomhives had plenty of tricks up their sleeves.

On good days, his parents could spend hours on end reading him stories or playing with him. On the day he met Sebastian, however, even Mother was busy as could be preparing for a soirée being held at the manor that night, and Father was out on the queen’s business with his friend Diedrich. Ciel had his stuffed animals to play with, and he’d become a master at creating the wildest adventures for them. But as the clock slowly ticked away, his fertile imagination ran dry, and he lapsed into staring glumly out the window. To make matters worse, he’d been too weak to get out of bed for a while, and he was sick and tired of just lying around.

“I’m so _bored_ ,” he moaned, flopping down facefirst onto his bed. “I wish something exciting would happen.”

“I’ve been suffering from ennui, myself,” a hoarse voice answered below him.

“Aaah!!” Ciel shrieked, almost jumping out of his skin. He had this room all to himself, and he’d have known right away if someone came in. Who was this person, and how had they gotten under his bed?

The voice huffed in exasperation. “Hardly a fitting welcome.”

Ciel let out a terrified squeak as something black and gooey appeared, looming over him. Dozens and dozens of red eyes, claws, _fangs_ —this was a monster! Too frightened to move, Ciel clutched at his favorite toy bunny and stared up at the creature, heart in his mouth. The Thing looked down at itself.

“Ah, I see. I suppose this form wouldn’t be appealing to children.”

A puff of smoke, and suddenly a man was sitting on the edge of his bed. He looked almost like Father, though his hair was black instead of dark grey, and his eyes were still that same glowing red. He wore a trim, dark suit that reminded Ciel of Tanaka’s.

“Is that better?” His voice had lost its harsh edge and was now smoother than butter.

Words flitted out of Ciel’s mind like little swallows. Still trembling, he warily stared at the stranger.

The man sighed. “For hell’s sake, child, I’m not going to eat you. I’m your family’s butler.”

“But we already have a butler,” Ciel answered, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. Tanaka had been around for as long as he could remember (Father said Tanaka joined their household when Ciel’s Grandmama Claudia was alive), and he’d never seen this…whatever he was...before in his life.

The man winked and put a finger to his lips. “That’s because I’m the secret butler, the _black_ butler, as your grandmother used to call me. A demon, as you humans put it.”

This person had known Grandmama? “Demons don’t live under your bed, monsters do. And devils have bat wings and spikey horns and goat hooves. Mother showed me in one of my storybooks,” Ciel protested.

The man melodramatically clapped a hand to his forehead and sighed. “Drivel, pure drivel. Do all humans look exactly alike?”

“Well, uh…no.”

“It’s the same with demons. We come in greater variety than a mortal mind could comprehend. By the by, I don’t _live_ under your bed, young master. I merely keep you company sometimes in my hours of leisure.”

Ciel’s mind buzzed with curiosity, and he eagerly peppered the demon with questions.

“What’s your name? How did you meet Grandmama? Why are you a secret? What—?”

The demon laughed, raising a gloved hand as if to fend off his inquiries.

“My true name is known to me alone. Names have great power, child, and shouldn’t be given out lightly. The late Mistress Claudia called me Sebastian Michaelis after a man of the Dominican order who fought against and wrote scholarly works on my kind. Always one for irony, your grandmother. As for how I met her…well, perhaps it’s easier for me to show you.”

A seething darkness crept over the nursery wall facing Ciel’s bed like a great shadow. The boy’s eyes grew big as saucers. “What’s that?”

“It’s a part of me—my demonic essence, to be precise. I can manipulate it at will.”

The black mass began to coalesce into recognizable shapes: A stormy sky, tall buildings crammed together, horsedrawn carriages, cobblestone streets, all in intricate, lifelike detail. Ciel had never seen anything like it before. Sebastian smiled in satisfaction when he saw that the boy was suitably impressed. “I was in London at the time, serving under a rather odious master. Lord Kelvin. Thankfully, our contract reached its conclusion at last, and I claimed his soul. Not particularly appetizing, I must say. A disappointing meal.” The shadows blurred and merged, reforming in the shape of a fat, evil-looking man with a face wrapped up in bandages like an Egyptian mummy. He reminded Ciel of a troll or goblin out of his book of fairy tales. Transfixed, Ciel watched Lord Kelvin fall to his knees before the many-eyed Thing that was Sebastian’s true shape. The man’s mouth moved as if pleading for his life, to no avail. The demon descended upon him, and Ciel clapped when Lord Kelvin’s body was torn in pieces and thrown about the room. Mother would never read him a story this exciting and filled with gore!

“It just so happened that your grandmother was in pursuit of Lord Kelvin, who had committed heinous crimes against queen and country. She arrived on the scene shortly after I’d claimed his soul, so I’d already done her dirty work for her.”

A tall woman wearing a ruffled dress entered the room, pistol in hand. Catching site of Sebastian hovering over Lord Kelvin’s remains, she stepped back, only to straighten and point her pistol at the demon. Had seeing Sebastian like that scared Grandmama? Ciel would have probably run away, but she’d been prepared to fight him!

“Grandmama must have been really brave,” he whispered in awe.

“A remarkable woman, Claudia, and made of sterner stuff than most masters I’ve served,” Sebastian said wistfully. “I knew immediately that she had what we demons call a high-quality soul. Before meeting her, I was languishing out of sheer boredom and heartily sick of the petty, tedious masters who summoned me. I offered to contract with her at once.”

On the wall, the shadowy demon extended a clawed hand towards the woman.

“Did you eat Grandmama’s soul?” Ciel asked anxiously. Father had once told him the story of a Dr. Faustus who’d sold his soul to a devil in exchange for power and riches. Had Grandmama made that fatal mistake?

Sebastian shook his head. “Mistress Claudia countered with a unique proposition. Instead of sacrificing her soul, she’d give me something of infinitely more value, on the condition that I served your family for as long as the Phantomhive bloodline endured.”

Ciel leaned forward, eyes glued to the shadow play. What could it be? A speech bubble appeared by the woman’s head, containing pictures of dozens of…cats?

“ _Cats_ ,” Sebastian confirmed in rapture. “The most wondrous creatures to ever grace this blighted world of yours. She swore to me that I would always have cats of my very own if I agreed to her conditions.”

Ciel giggled. Imagine a terrifying demon playing with kitties! Then another question came to mind. “But how did Grandmama know you liked cats so much?”

“A lucky conjecture on her part. My former master despised cats (just one of his many failings), but I smuggled several into his manor.” Feline shapes materialized on the wall, slinking around the edges of Lord Kelvin’s room. “Mistress Claudia had a keen mind, and she quickly surmised that these noble cats must be mine.”

“So that’s why we have so many cats at the manor!” Ciel piped up. Since he was allergic to them, they were barred from his room, but he often saw the cats strolling the premises when he was well enough to get out of bed. Mother and Father argued about this when they thought he wasn’t listening. Mother worried that they might set off the coughing spells where Ciel couldn’t breathe (“asthma” as Auntie An called it), but Father insisted that they _had_ to keep the cats because they were “important.” ‘Important _how_?’ Mother would press him.

‘That’s a Phantomhive family secret, Rachel.’

Now, Ciel finally knew what that family secret was. ‘What happened next?’ he demanded impatiently, bouncing on the bed in excitement.

‘Since Mistress Claudia was a countess, we agreed that I should adopt the form of a butler.’

In a whirl of shadows, the Thing on the wall transformed into Sebastian, who bowed low to Grandmama before taking her hand and kissing it.

‘From that day forward, I was your family’s devoted servant, assisting Mistress Claudia where mortal efforts would have failed her.”

A kaleidoscope of images whirled on the wall: Sebastian felling an Italian mob with a fistful of silverware. Sebastian standing at Grandmama’s side while they fought against a pack of werewolves with only swords for protection. Sebastian and Grandmama leaping out of a crumbling tower, the demon holding her in his arms as they plummeted to the ground from a great height.

“Wow!” Ciel cheered. “That’s amazing!!!”

“Why, thank you,” the demon purred, his chest swelling with pride. “Exciting times, those days with Mistress Claudia.” His expression grew downcast, and his gleaming eyes lost their luster. “But even I was powerless to halt the consumption that took her life.”

The images changed again, to show Grandmama, gaunt and haggard, lying dead upon her bed. A young boy and girl (Papa and Aunt Frances?) sobbed in each other’s arms, and Sebastian stood off to the side, face somber and unreadable. The shadows abruptly retreated, leaving the nursery wall blank and white again.

“After that, I pledged my service to your father, but over time…well, the contract lost some of its appeal. Perhaps Master Vincent is too similar to his mother for his own good. For whatever reason, my boredom returned with a vengeance.”

Ciel cocked his head to the side. “So why didn’t you try to leave?”

“I’m still bound by contract, for one…but also because of you,” the demon smiled down at him, those red eyes glowing warmly. “You probably don’t remember, but I used to play with you when you were a baby.” The shadows swarmed over the wall, showing an infant Ciel gurgling happily in his crib. In his true form, Sebastian dangled his tentacles just out of reach while baby Ciel tried to grab them, waving his arms excitedly. Ciel giggled.

“Guess I didn’t think you were scary when I was little!”

“You humans are funny that way; the older you are, the more you fear what you don’t understand,” Sebastian replied with a wry smile. “You were a delight, and I would have gladly remained your playmate had one of the maids not spotted me.”

In the picture on the wall, a housemaid entered the room, stopped dead, clapped her hands to her head, and fell on the floor in a dead faint.

“Uh oh!” Ciel tittered.

Sebastian raised his eyebrows. “‘U-oh,’ indeed. Master Vincent found the whole affair amusing, but he ordered me not to interact with you directly until you were older…and well out of sight of silly maids.” The demon grinned, showing his fangs. “Of course, the master didn’t expressly forbid me from being in the same room with you. So, unless I’m required to assist him with his work, I keep watch under your bed.”

Ciel scrunched up his forehead. “What’s so interesting about me, though? I just get sick too often.”

“Your imagination, young master,” Sebastian answered at once. “I’m fascinated by the stories you create to keep yourself occupied. If you weren’t slated to be the Queen’s Watchdog, I’d assume you were destined to be a writer. In spite of being trapped in a frail body, your soul shines like a star. That heart holds the Phantomhive darkness, but there’s a kindness that the other generations lacked.” He gently took Ciel by the chin and looked in his eyes. The boy could see himself reflected in those slit pupils, face alight with wonder. “No other master of mine has found joy in shadow puppets.”

After that, Ciel and Sebastian became fast friends. When Mother and Father couldn’t keep him company, Sebastian was always there, entertaining Ciel with shadow plays recounting his numerous adventures on Earth. From his little bed in the English countryside, Ciel traveled the whole world: Swashbuckling pirate ships, the windswept Saharan desert, mysterious jungles filled with hidden treasure and ravenous beasts—Sebastian showed them all. Ciel made his own shadow puppets on a much smaller scale, like hopping bunnies or a howling wolf. But Sebastian happily provided the backdrops he needed—a grassy field, a mysterious moon—to bring his creations to life. The demon also helped Ciel with plans for a toy store the boy wanted to open some day (“So that children like me will have plenty of toys to play with!”). He and the demon swapped ideas about designs for a line of stuffed bunnies (Sebastian suggested calling them “Bitter Rabbits”), and Ciel came up with dozens of different products for their “Funtom Company.”

Years passed. While still rather delicate, Ciel gradually grew stronger, vigorous enough to build his dream toy company into a mighty corporation. When death claimed Vincent Phantomhive, Ciel took up his mantle as Watchdog, dispensing the queen’s justice and bringing order to London’s underworld. Dozens of wild tales sprang up around this earl, but strangest of all were the rumors about his shadow. It was said that Ciel Phantomhive’s shadow didn’t quite stay still. If you looked at it long enough, it started to move, undulating and dancing at the edges like a living thing. A few souls would swear on their mother’s graves that a hoarse voice sometimes emerged from the shade, engaging the young nobleman in conversation. Dead men tell no tales, but his enemies could have recounted horrifying stories of the menacing, red-eyed butler who’d appeared from that shadow to end their miserable lives with a simple “Yes, my lord.” And, though Ciel’s children never breathed a word to outsiders, the Phantomhives’ black butler played shadow puppets with them in the hallowed sanctum of the nursery.


End file.
